CR Nation has a good post, mentioned below by Ethan, on recruitment on campus.

It’s worth the read, and I’d like to add a few little tips and reminders just to keep the conversation going and maybe add a little spark to your recruiting efforts on campus.

1) Spring recruitment is often something that is discounted in importance by many chapters because the fall recruiting wave was either so successful that we choose to ride the wave through until the next year, or so uh…bad…that we give up and assume things won’t be different in the spring. It’s vitally important that we don’t make this mistake for a few reasons. First, there are many new students that show up in the spring after transferring schools that would not otherwise know about your organization if you didn’t tell them. Two, as is the case right now, campuses come alive as we approach campaign season and now is an excellent chance to capture the people who catch the political fever first. Lastly, we’re going to need as many people as possible in the fall and we do not have the luxury of waiting all summer long to begin building our ranks in the fall - we need them plugged in now!

2) No matter the season, we have to show some energy and enthusiasm while recruiting. Sitting behind the table, or recruiting via hopeful gazes doesn’t do much to build our chapters. Get up, move around, have some music playing, throw some things (preferably not very hard), and get some attention! Go get people and bring them to the table, or have two people walking around together with a clip board while two others are at the table. Don’t be afraid to joke around and have a good time. Remember: college students want to have fun, even while practicing politics.

3) On the CR Nation list, they list some things to have at the table. Those are all good ideas, but I would like to emphasize the flier for your next meeting. Some new members might not get entered into your email list right away, or are simply forgetful, and this is a great way to leave them with a little reminder about the meeting coming up tomorrow. Make sure to have a funny slogan, all the details, and a reason to come (pizza is a good start).

4) Recruit at events! When people are streaming in to see your speaker, are sitting in the rows before the movie, or are leaving the BBQ you had setup - grab their info!

5) Recruit often! One table a semester doesn’t get everyone. Move the table around for the next time your recruit, and have one up at least once a month but try to get as close to once a week as possible.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for right now…

If you have suggestions about tips to include email them on over csmith AT crnc.org

In a shocking (although sadly not so) article in Sunday’s New York Times, two reporters, Deborah Sontag and Lizatte Alvarez, launched into typical talking points about bloodthirsty soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as maniacal killers.

Town by town across the country, headlines have been telling similar stories. Lakewood, Wash.: “Family Blames Iraq After Son Kills Wife.” Pierre, S.D.: “Soldier Charged With Murder Testifies About Postwar Stress.” Colorado Springs: “Iraq War Vets Suspected in Two Slayings, Crime Ring.”

Individually, these are stories of local crimes, gut-wrenching postscripts to the war for the military men, their victims and their communities. Taken together, they paint the patchwork picture of a quiet phenomenon, tracing a cross-country trail of death and heartbreak.

The NYT patched together 121 of these stories to paint the picture of rabid young men returning to America as crazed murderers - following the leftist portrait of American soldiers who are either psychopaths to begin with or are made so by the military.

The problem here is that 121 veteran-murderers, although sad, is a tremendously small amount as Ralph Peters explains in a counter-article in the NY Post:

Had the Times’ “journalists” and editors bothered to put those figures in context - which they carefully avoided doing - they would’ve found that the murder rate that leaves them so aghast means that our vets are five times less likely to commit a murder than their demographic peers.
The Times’ public editor, Clark Hoyt, should crunch the numbers. I’m even willing to spot the Times a few percentage points (either way). But the hard statistics from the Justice Department tell a far different tale from the Times’ anti-military propaganda.
A very conservative estimate of how many different service members have passed through Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait since 2003 is 350,000 (and no, that’s not double-counting those with repeated tours of duty).
Now consider the Justice Department’s numbers for murders committed by all Americans aged 18 to 34 - the key group for our men and women in uniform. To match the homicide rate of their peers, our troops would’ve had to come home and commit about 150 murders a year, for a total of 700 to 750 murders between 2003 and the end of 2007.
In other words, the Times unwittingly makes the case that military service reduces the likelihood of a young man or woman committing a murder by 80 percent.

I don’t know whether to assume the reporters are simply bad at their jobs because they are lazy and incompetent, or because they ignore basic journalistic standards and impose their leftist propaganda upon their audience, but either way they owe our veterans a very serious apology.

Please tell the NYT editors how you feel by here!

Well, we’re finally here - only moments from the Big Show in my home state (and what a great state it is by the way!) of Iowa.

For Christmas, I had the opportunity to spend a few precious days in Iowa and beyond it being a nice chance to relax with some family and friends, it was an incredible political experience. For outsiders to understand the intensity with which Iowa voters pay attention to the caucuses would be an impossibility. Iowans cherish their role in the election process, appreciate its importance, and approach voting for their candidates with an amazing amount of respect for the import of their decision. Iowans have a deep sense of responsiblity, and make their decisions grudgingly and never without a thorough examination of every candidate and every position.

At the same time the sheer volume of campaign activity was enough to take you back. Staying at my parents home in extremely-suburban Des Moines, we were inundated with mail, phone calls, and commercials on a near constant basis. By my count, not a single commercial break went by without a political ad, and there were many times when the only commercials running were from the candidates or their surrogate support organizations. Amazing in itself, it was doubly so because it was in the run-up to the Christmas shopping season - a time where the airwaves are normally dominated by Tickle-Me Elmo, not Chris Dodd.

Tonight, in but a few minutes actually, Iowans will kick off the most amazing political process on the globe - the selection of an American president. May they make wise decisions, for the whole world may depend on it.

If you have a regularly updated official CR Federation or Chapter blog, we’ll include your link on our site if you email it to csmith *at* crnc dot org (sorry, but I hate SPAM as much as the next guy).

“I know that Congress has low approval ratings. I wouldn’t approve of Congress, because we haven’t done anything.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D)

This video is hilarious and informative at the same time.

Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R) new media team has been very active. These are things that CRs could be making constantly to fill a major void in the GOP’s campaign apparatus. I really encourage CRs around the nation to go grab iMovie, Final Cut Pro, or some other video editing software, and start cutting some clever YouTube videos.

We all remember the giant Flip-Flops and Flipper the dolphin trailing John Kerry around to his fundraisers, speeches, and rallies. They were so eager to help the good Senator, that they seemed to never leave his side and were constantly appearing on TV to represent his positions.

Of course, Flipper couldn’t have done it all by himself, he needed CRs to don the costume and trot into enemy territory - but hey, that’s what we’re for! CRs are made to do bracketing events!

The post below captures a perfect example of the Rhode Island CRs pulling off a spectacular bracketing event. They took an issue that Hillary really didn’t need to have in the press, and made it the story of the event by injecting some dry humor into the situation and having a few dozen CRs there to make he point. Congrats!

Bracketing is like putting bookends on either side of an opponent’s event to make sure that the story coming out deals not with how great a fundraiser Hillary had, but instead that she has always been a supporter of the war and will continue to be. The purpose is to expose the truth to the people watching at home, and humor usually is the most effective way of accomplishing this in a short 10 second shot on the nightly news.

College Republicans nationwide should be engaging their local political scene with such bracketing events. Don’t wait until next fall to get started; now is the time to excite your membership, dust off that old Flipper costume, and storm the enemy’s barricades! The public deserves to hear the truth!

PS: Remember to always bring your video camera (or digital camera at the very, very least) and capture the whole thing on film. Do a little editing for quality’s sake and throw it up on YouTube for the world to see. You can then include the link in any post-event press releases.

The Rhode Island College Republicans have gotten some attention from the Washington Times this morning for their event thanking HRC for her 2002 vote to authorize action in Iraq.

I’d like to thank…

This year, the CRNC is giving out its award via a YouTube video. The winners are in the vid above, and each will receive a small block grant from the CRNC for their tremendous work this year. As we move into 2008, all CR organizations will have opportunities to be rewarded for their hard work through incentives from the national organization. Recruitment, voter registration, GOTV, and activism on campus are where CRs can make an impact all over the nation.

So, congratulations to this year’s winner and let’s all get to back work!

If you’re a CR, and you have a cell phone…so, that’s everyone…please do this:

www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil

For an explanation, visit here.

Don’t tell me about text fees, just do it!

The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the poster and do not represent his/her views as an officer of the College Republican National Committee (CRNC) or the views of the CRNC.

It’s over - took less than an hour for this administration’s first CRNC National Board Meeting to adjourn. The board quickly went through the proposed agenda. As promised by the administration during campaign season, we passed a constitutional amendment to amend Article Three, Section Six, Subsection Two by inserting the following after the last sentence:

“The Budget and Finance Committee shall select one of its members to keep minutes of all meetings. The minutes shall be filed with the Secretary of the CRNC, and shall be made available to any members of the National Bard no less than three business days after a written request has been made. The request shall be submitted to the CRNC Executive Director, and shall include information regarding the document requested and the preferred method of deliver.”This amendment, proposed by Midwest Vice-Chairman Justin Smith, is just one of the many ways our administration is making sure we’re transparent and open about the inner-working of the College Republicans.”

Chairman Charlie Smith presented the 2007-2008 budget, which set ambitious fundraising and programming goals. More than ever before, resources will be sent out to the states and chapters through the Field Program, the new STORM network, and through OnePage Events that will allow chapters to become part of nationwide events all run on the same day.

As the meeting adjourned at 9:37 a.m., Chairman Charlie Smith and Executive Director Ethan Eilon launched into a presentation of the struggles and success experienced since taking office on July 15th. They also outlined our plan going forward.

Exciting and innovative initiatives are in the works for College Republicans across the nation!

Stay tuned to hear some of those highlights…